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Fourth in a series previewing Texas Tech spring football practice, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 17.

Texas Tech gained a lot of clarity at quarterback over the winter without even playing a football game. Senior Seth Doege represents the present, redshirt freshman Michael Brewer the future.

When top backup Jacob Karam and former blue-chip recruit Scotty Young decided after the season to transfer, the Red Raiders were left with Doege and Brewer as the only scholarship quarterbacks for spring practice, along with junior squadman Brant Costilla. Newly signed Clayton Nicholas will join them in the summer.

“I think Michael Brewer after a spring, if something was to happen with Doege, Brewer would be able to step in and lead our offense. I’ve got a lot of confidence in him. Clayton will be here in the summer, and he needs to redshirt. That’ll give us a third, and that’s really all you need.”

Doege passed for 4,004 yards and finished seventh in the nation in total offense, but stumbled down the stretch in his first year as a starter. His TD pass-to-interceptions ratio deteriorated from 22-4 after seven games to 6-6 in the last five.

“I thought he played very well,” Brown said. “What happened to Seth down the stretch ... our inability to run the ball and we weren’t playing very well on defense, so a lot of the pressure went to Seth.”

Brown said he was pleased with how Doege played in the last two games of the season, a 31-27 loss at Missouri and a 62-42 loss against Baylor in Dallas. He had 300-yard passing performances in both, and Brown said one of the two interceptions Doege threw against the Bears was not his fault.

“I think he’s as good as any quarterback returning in the Big 12,” Brown said.

Doege figures to keep the job, but the Red Raiders are excited about his potential successor. The battle for No. 2 turned into no battle at all when Young recently decided to leave the program.

“They really were going to go (compete) in the spring,” Brown said. “Brewer played a little better than (Young) in some of our Sunday night scrimmages toward the end of the year, but it was going to be a competition.”

Brewer played on three of what’s now five straight state title winners at Austin Lake Travis, quarterbacking the Cavaliers to the 2009 and 2010 crowns. After coming to Lubbock at mid-term last year, he picked up where he left off.

Coaches view him as a dual threat — a capable runner, but with a quick release.

“He’s a winner,” Brown said. “He’s got a little bit of the ‘it’ factor. He’s been the leader within that freshman class. That leadership role is starting to grow with the upperclassmen as well, and our guys have a lot of confidence in him.

“I think it’s big that he comes from a football family, comes from a successful high school program. He understands what it takes to win. Every week last year, even redshirting, he prepared like he was going to play that game, and I thought that showed a lot of maturity.”

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Interesting recap. Yes, James is a lying douche bag that fortunately, will pay for his ego & lies the rest of his life. His current Senate bid is a joke and will fail. His reputation forever tied to this event has exposed him as the meddling big mouth who used his media position to influence the whole saga. BUT, this plainly exhibits that Tech was fully ready to "conclude all investigation" into this matter. Tech as a respected institution had to react to this situation in the manner it did because it did not know what further an investigation would have revealed at the time and they knew this thing was going nuclear in the media in 12-24 hours. Mike's refusal to assist them & diffuse the situation and his own behavior (ego) got him canned, which is unfortunate and obviously is still affecting our program. I call it the ego bowl. James vs. Leach. Others argue that Hance, Myers, & Bailey's egos too were too blame. That may be true but my opinion is they all got caught up in this mess between the other two. I for one have kicked my horse and moved on. Looking forward to better days next season.

I predict that 'the tubster' will be leaving with a great severance package.. thanks to Kent Hance.

You have to thank GOV Rick Perry and Senator Robert Duncan for this fiasco, because they failed to intervene.. Heck, both showed up and showered Kent Hance with millions of dollars so that the Rev. could continue to stick it to the folks in Lubbock.

So, the next question is.. when will Pastor Hance be let out to pasture?

Don't fall for the Tier 1 bull.. it is a simple waste of tax dollars that works in liberalville, not in WEST TEXAS!

two years now Doege does not have a strong enough arm to make plays downfield and his running ability is very limited. I've been watching Brewer since he was a junior in high school and have said all along, he's the next star at Tech. Hopefully it will dawn on the so called offense coordinator "Brown" that Brewer is the guy that will be much more successful in leading this offense. Just because Doege's a senior doesn't mean he should be automatic in starting lineup. Brewer clearly has more all around talent........and the leadership to go along with it.